Stockbridge, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Stockbridge is a small town and civil parish in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. It is one of the smallest towns in the United Kingdom. It sits astride the River Test and at the foot of Stockbridge Down.

Description The town is situated on the A30 road, which once carried most of the traffic from London to Dorset, south Somerset, Devon and Cornwall in the South West, though today this route is less important than the A303 dual carriageway to the north. The bridge over the Test led to the town's name, a local legend suggested a coach stop stocked provisions, but it derives from an earlier bridge that was made of 'stocks' (tree trunks). Salisbury is 15 miles (24 km) by road; Winchester is 8.3 miles (13.4 km) by the B3049 road that joins the A30 nearby. The town's long high street was thus on a useful route between the two medieval cathedral cities. The town's civil parish has an area of 1,323 acres (535 ha).

The town's street crosses the River Test, marking the border of the parishes of Stockbridge and Longstock by a low bridge of three arches rebuilt and widened in 1799.

Five smaller river channels flow through the town. For a brief time, to provide space for fish, these were split into eight artificial ditches just above the town.

The town is on a shared pedestrian/footpath, the Test Way.

History and economy The place-name 'Stockbridge' first appears in Charter Rolls of 1239 as Stocbrigge. In Inquisitiones post mortem of 1258 it appears as Stokbregg. The name means 'stock bridge', referring to a bridge constructed from stocks (meaning 'tree trunks').

Stockbridge witnessed the capture of Robert of Gloucester by William of Ypres in 1141. Edward I stayed in Stockbridge in August 1294, as did the last Catholic King, James II, on his way to Salisbury to meet the forces of the Prince of Orange. He dined at the Swan Inn in November 1688, which still exists. The right to hold a market was awarded to the town (as the parcel known as The Street in King's Somborne manor) before 1190 in Richard I's reign, reviewed and confirmed in 1200, and extended to an annual three-day fair by Henry III. As in the 12th century, the town consists almost wholly of one long wide street and it is to this characteristic that it owed its early name of Le Street. The town grew and prospered as an unincorporated mesne borough before, probably by plague, the place became almost deserted and the poverty of the remaining inhabitants was so great that the market which had been confirmed to the town by Henry V and Henry VI was discontinued.

By the mid-Tudor era, under Edward VI, the wealthy burgages numbered 58, partly in consequence of this, in 1562 two members of parliament were granted. Charles I had confirmed the right to annual fairs in 1641, however during the start of the nineteenth century a marked decline in trade was noted at the three increasingly agricultural fairs, with one continuing until after 1911 The population of the parish was 853 in 1871, with 185 inhabited houses.

Hampshire's four tourist Pocket Guides cover the traditional towns of Stockbridge, Alresford, Bishops Waltham and Wickham.